Dennis Nett/The Post-StandardSU's Rakeem Christmas battles for a rebound against Marshall's Dennis Tinnon in a Dec. 6 game at the Carrier Dome.

The Syracuse basketball team, the newly anointed No. 1 team in the nation, travels to Raleigh this weekend to play North Carolina State.

SU will face a Wolfpack team that ranks No. 3 in the Atlantic Coast Conference in rebound margin. NC State has proven to be especially proficient this season on the offensive glass.

And that, for SU, could pose some problems.

In its last two outings, the Orange has won the games, but lost the rebounding battles. Marshall has been a dominating rebounding team this season, but George Washington has not distinguished itself on the backboards.

“We didn’t rebound again tonight,” SU coach Jim Boeheim said Tuesday, after his team defeated GW in the Carrier Dome. “I think that’s something we have to be concerned about going forward.”

Syracuse currently sits ninth in the Big East in rebound margin. The Orange are plus-3.7 in that category.

But buried in that rebounding number is a somewhat startling revelation: SU ranks No. 1 in the league in offensive rebounds.

The Orange’s struggles, this year, have occurred on the defensive glass, where SU has labored to prevent teams from generating second-chance opportunities. The Orange ranks 11th in the Big East in defensive rebounds (23.5) and 14th in percentage of defensive rebounds (.633).

Consider the Orange’s most recent game against George Washington, a team that ranks 11th in the Atlantic 10 in rebound margin at minus-2.1. GW grabbed 19 offensive rebounds in the SU game. The Colonials offensive rebounding percentage against SU was .404.

That means that roughly 40 percent of the time the Colonials missed shots in that game, they got their own rebounds. That percentage is significantly higher than what GW averages this season. The Colonials rank eighth in the Atlantic 10 in percentage of offensive rebounds at .327.

SU, too, lost the rebounding battle against Marshall, a team that ranks No. 1 in Conference-USA in three rebounding categories. The Thundering Herd leads in rebound margin at plus-11.5. It tops C-USA in offensive rebounding percentage (.463) and the average number of offensive rebounds it collects each game (17.0).

Against the Orange, Marshall grabbed 13 more total rebounds than SU. The Thundering Herd hauled in 20 offensive rebounds. When Marshall players missed shots against SU, they got their own rebounds 44 percent of the time.

“Coach talked about we have to get better on the boards,” SU center Baye Keita said. “That’s what we’re going to work on this week. And last week, too. We’re going to work on that and be more focused, otherwise that could cause us a little bit of a problem.”

“We just have to rebound,” said SU forward Kris Joseph, who leads the Orange at 6.1 rebounds per game. “I think we can do a better job. It’s about effort and will when it comes to rebounding. It’s only about two out of 10 times when the ball just lands in your hands. The rest of the time, you have to go get the ball. So I think we just have to have a sense of urgency on the glass.”

That urgency needs to start on Saturday.

NC State outrebounded the Orange 39-33 last season in its Carrier Dome loss to SU. The Wolfpack’s leading rebounders from that game — C.J. Leslie (11 rebounds in 26 minutes), Scott Wood (8 rebounds), DeShawn Painter (5 rebounds) and Richard Howell (5 rebounds) return this season.

Howell leads the Pack at 8.3 boards per game. Painter and Leslie average six rebounds. (Leslie served three games of an NCAA-imposed suspension related to improper benefits earlier this year and started NC State’s last two games.)

North Carolina State ranks No. 1 in the ACC in offensive rebound percentage (.397) and is tied for first in offensive rebounds (13.7).

Boeheim said Tuesday that SU needs to mine more rebounds from its forward positions. He specifically asked C.J. Fair and James Southerland to perform better on the backboards. Fair, a sophomore, had been a dependable force on the boards until SU’s last two outings, when he grabbed a total of four rebounds. Fair is SU’s second-best rebounder at 5.7 per game.

Keita (3.0 rpg) and Melo (5.1 rpg) suggested SU’s 2-3 zone poses problems on the defensive glass — a theory Boeheim has also proposed. The Orange centers said the zone, combined with SU’s ability to block shots on the interior, entices teams to shoot from the perimeter. All those perimeter shots, they said, put them in awkward defensive rebounding positions.

“Especially me,” Melo said. “I’m in the middle of the zone. And when they shoot, they shoot from the corners. And the ball goes opposite side. So it’s hard to get in position for that. We work on that a lot.

“We gotta see before the guy shoots the ball, we have to see where our man is and we have to know where to be,” Melo said. “We gotta look at the ball all the time to see where it’s going.”

Melo said SU coaches have asked the Orange guards to help on the defensive glass. SU will send as many as four players to the defensive boards. The point guard, said Scoop Jardine, is allowed to leak out for a potential fast break whenever an opposing team attempts a shot.

The Wolfpack, if statistics offer any indicator, will fight the Orange for every one of their missed shots on Saturday. NC State has proven, this season, to be tenacious on the offensive glass.